Category: Running

Be a Dump Runner!

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts this morning while out for a short run. It is the podcast Dump Runners Club. I first started listening to this around episode 6 in March of last year.

It is one of those podcasts that has gotten much better with time. Having said that, do yourself a favor and don’t listen to the early episodes. If you want to go back and catch up, start somewhere in the summer around episode 20.

One thing you have to remember about Matt’s podcast though is that he is an experienced runner. You are not listening to a newbie at the sport. Therefore, he approaches things more from a seasoned athletes point of view. Not someone who just took up the sport for cardiovascular health. While I participate in races, he runs races. If we were to run a half marathon together, he would arrive about an hour ahead of me. Therefore it can be discouraging to listen to Matt and think that you will never achieve his level as a runner. Don’t let that get you down. There is a need for high level athletes to get some information that can help them.

The episode I heard today was about New Year’s running resolutions. He had some good stuff to think about and try to challenge yourself with in the coming year.

I enjoy the show so I thought I would share that with you and give Matt some positive advertisement. But believe me when I say you don’t want to listen to the early episodes.

Yes, I know that it is a strange name. A Dump Runner is the title bestowed on someone who runs to the dump. Literally. A recent episode mentioned a lady who became a Dump Runner on her birthday. I thought about doing the same for my birthday this year, but instead went and gorged myself at the local breakfast buffet. I will do a dump run sometime soon and become a member of this exclusive club.

Missionary Talks 10: Josh Allred

Josh is the oldest son of the missionaries we had on episodes 7 and 8.

This was a fun interview. Josh is a runner too. Though we did not talk any about running in the podcast, we had dinner together later that night and talked quite a bit then.

When I was interviewing him I noticed that he was wearing a T-shirt from his college, but did not pay attention to it. Later at the meal when I was getting another helping of lasagna from the kitchen, I noticed the back of his shirt. It had one of my favorite Steve Prefontaine quotes on it.

To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.

He ran cross country in college his freshman year. His school is kinda small, though they competed against all the big colleges in Florida. They raced against the Gators, Hurricanes and Seminoles. He only ran XC his freshman year because the other 4 runners wanted to play soccer this year and he needed more time to study. That is how small the school is, their only 5 runners made up the whole XC team.

Enjoy the show!

Oh, my other favorite Pre quote is:

Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.

Running Week

I have not been keeping up with the mileage I would like to have had this month, but I am still pounding the pavement. Since I posted at the start of the month that I would like to go for a 600 mile year, I have basically not been able to make it a priority. I got pretty sick just after that and had to lay off of some of the physical activities. Then a long run got postponed because I did not want it to affect a race the next day. I ran a 5K PR in that race, by the way.

This week I only ran twice. A 5K on Thursday and today I ran 8.5 miles. My running and exercise routine has been out of whack due to this chess tournament. I usually do a couple of evening runs while my son is in chess class. His classes were on a break during the tournament since his coach is a judge for the event. Then the morning schedule has been messed up because I am too lazy to get out and run at 6:00. I did manage a short run on Thursday before my son played that morning.

Thursday’s 5K run was encouraging. I did not at all push myself and was just running to get miles in. I ran it at a 9:13 pace. I remember when 9:13 was impossible and an easy run was more in line with an 11:30 pace.

Today’s run of 8.5 miles was very enjoyable. I had no distance nor time goals with the run. I took a play from Adam Tinkoff’s Burning 20 podcast. Adam has been running in France and Australia recently. While on these runs he tells us what he is doing. Besides running it seems Adam spent a lot of time taking pictures and enjoying side walk cafés. So on my run today I got to the 4.5 mile point and just sat down on the side of the road and stared at cars as they went by. I also put a big dent in the 1.5 liters of water I was carrying in my CamelBak pack.

Then at 6.5 miles I saw a remote control airplane buzzing overhead. I stopped to talk to the “pilots.” It was fun to learn a bit about the hobby here. I know in the US the hobby of planes like that is regulated by the FCC and you have to hold an Amateur Radio Operator’s license to use the planes. They told me here that they don’t have to go through any of that, you just have to have the money to afford the planes.

I finished out the last 2 miles kinda slow. Since there were no time limits for me today (a rarity on Saturdays), I just took my time. I did not even leave until almost 2 hours later than normal. I ran for about 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Mom, I got my camel back.

The camel finally came home to roost. I ordered a Camelbak running pack a few months ago from Bike Nashbar. I got a great deal on it in August, but have had to wait to have it delivered. When you live outside the US, all the great deals on the Internet get negated when you have to pay so much extra in shipping, if they offer it at all. Then you have to just hope that the product arrives. We prefer to wait until we know someone is coming down to visit and have them bring the loot in.

I got the Camelbak Flash Flo 45 oz. pack. It took a while to figure out how best to wear the thing and how to cinch it all down. Being a man, I did not even look at the picture instructions. Today, in my spare 10 minutes, I looked at them and saw they were almost totally unhelpful, but there was a drawing that gave me an idea about how to secure the straps a bit better.CamelBak Flash Flo

The pack is marketed to the running community. Or at least a very active community. But this thing has straps long enough to fit around my (very large) sister. I am not petite, but the straps are still very long for me. Just looping them through the tie down bungee still allowed them to flap. Apparently you are supposed to be smart enough to know to double them back on themselves and then use the elastic straps to secure them. There was one picture in the instructions that insinuated this.

I had to wear the pack much tighter than I first thought to keep it from bouncing. I think I will get used to that.

My iPod (20GB hard drive based) did well in the pack. It never skipped. But, my experience today caused me to dislike music in podcasts even more. I start my run through some very busy streets with lots of bus traffic. I have to turn the volume up a bit to hear the talking. But then, when the music started it really hurt. Normally that is not a problem because I run with the iPod in hand and I can adjust the volume while fast forwarding the song. Since I am not a contortionist, I was not able to fast forward the song, nor drop the volume. I had to run with the headphones in my hand. No worries though, the music was so loud that I could easily hear when the song stopped. PODCASTERS, I HATE YOUR MUSIC!! And I especially hate it when the level of the music is so much louder than the speaking part. When I got past all the bus traffic I stopped and dropped the volume in general.

I took it on a short run to give it a good try. I only ran 10K (6.2 miles) today with it. It will be a welcome accessory to longer training runs. Though, I think I will be glad to have it on any run longer than 5 or 6 miles. I only filled it about half full of liquid today and it was not too heavy.

5K PR!

Two weeks ago I wrote about a 5K race that I did in 28:00:63. The race was actually .17 Km. too long. Which meant that my 5K time (based on total race pace) was 27:04.

Today I had another 5K race which I ran in 27:29:89. And it too was long by .12 Km. That meant my pacing for 5K would have been a 26:50 finish! I have had as a mini goal to get under 27 minutes. Next goal is 25 minutes and then I will shoot for 22.

The race was promoted very poorly. I did not know anything about it until yesterday (Friday). The poster said the events started at 7:00, but registration was at 6:30. That is somewhat normal for races longer than 5K here. Most 5Ks are done at 8:00. The idea is that the race would be over by 9:00. So the distance determines the start time.

I got there at 6:30. I stood in line with several other people. Registration was going very slowly. At 6:50 I knew I would not be up to the registration table by the 7:00 start time. Then I overheard a conversation that said the race started at 8:00. Everyone was a little befuddled at the change in time. Apparently it was planned that way the whole time, they just did not make it clear on the posters.

Well, I was easily registered before 8:00. With the change in start time it kinda messed up my “race day planning.” I drank enough water before I left the house for a 7:00 start. Waiting an hour killed my strategy on that. I was thirsty before the race started. Fortunately at the 2.5 Km. turn around there were bags of water waiting for us.

I had my eyes on one particular lady that I was going to try and beat. She stayed ahead of me the first 3.5 Km. till I finally caught her. We chatted a bit and then she picked up the pace. I could not keep up. She finished strong and I was starting to get side cramps from pushing so hard. She ended up finishing about 1 minute ahead of me. She won first place in her category. That made me at least feel good that I was running along side of a first place runner for a short time.

I took 45th place in my category which was all males that were not either students or faculty/staff of the state university. They were limiting the runners to 100 per category. I would guess there were probably about that many in my group. So, I was just ahead of the middle of the pack.

I was very pleased with the race overall. If I was not sick with a cold I might have been able to do better. But even with not being able to breath out of my nose and having to choke down nasal mucus, I did great. This just motivates me to think that I should be able to get another PR when I am feeling well.